"Minzhong"(or "minjung" in Korean), signifies a very important historical movement for democracy by the people against the dictatorial rule of Pak Chun Hee (1917-1979) and Chun Doo Hwan (1931- ) in South Korea from the late seventies to the eighties.
Tracing the development of the ideas around "min", the people, Dr Wong examines the imaginary space of resistance of the “multitude” as revived by Hardt and Negri in 2000, and its usefulness and limitation in the mobilisation of people’s movements in Asia today.
Minzhong as a platform for a people’s movement against self-interested government authorities has lost much of its aura in the mobilisation of social movements in the twenty-first century. Because of the multiplicity of interests and diversity of goals and styles of conducting a movement, there is a need to re-conceptualise the meaning of "the people" as they assemble for resistance. Based on the "juzhong" experience in the Umbrella Movement of Hong Kong, Dr Wong explores the possibilities of conception and re-conception of the multitude as a resistant force in late capitalist societies like Hong Kong.
Dr Angela Wong Wai Ching
Dr Angela Wong Wai Ching teaches at the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, serves as the Deputy Chair of the Department and as Director of the MA Programme in Intercultural Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has engaged deeply in the development of the Gender Studies Programme, headed the Graduate Division of Gender Studies and is presently the Co-Director of Gender Research Centre. Her research interests include: gender and sexuality, religious fundamentalism and Asian culture, women in Islam, Buddhism, Daoism and Christianity, and post-colonialism and religions in Hong Kong.
Professor Angela Wong Wai Ching was a Featured Presenter and Panelist at The Asian Conference on Asian Studies 2015 (ACAS2015) in Kobe, Japan.
